Scientific Sophisms. 247 



things ? " Theism affirms, Atheism denies, 

 Agnosticism ignores, the existence of any such 

 Soul. To put an end to controversy the appeal 

 is made to facts. Is the affirmation of Theism 

 unsustained by evidence? Is the negation of 

 Atheism consistent' with the admissions which 

 Atheism itself has been compelled to make ? 

 Is the ignorance of Agnosticism compatible 

 with the knowledge to which Agnosticism 

 makes such arrogant pretensions ? 



I. "In all things." Let us begin at the be- 

 ginning. It is in the phenomena of crystalliza- 

 tion that Professor Tyndall finds the foundation 

 of all higher phenomena life, growth, repro- 

 duction, intelligence, will. He believes "that 

 the formation of a crystal, a plant, or an animal, 

 is a purely mechanical problem, which differs 

 from the problems of ordinary mechanics in the 

 smallness of the masses and the complexity 

 of the process involved." l 



Take now the least complex of the three 

 instances of constructive power here mentioned, 

 that of crystallization. " The human mind," 

 says the Professor, " is as little disposed to look 

 unquestioning at these pyramidal salt crystals 



1 "Fragments of Science," p. 119. 



